SOMERVILLE, Mass. ?" Recently, Bloc 11 Café exchanged its coffeehouse menu for a five-course, prix-fixe meal for three weekend nights, one of a growing number of pop-up fine dining restaurants dotting the country, the Boston Globe reports. Chef Will Gilson created the moveable feast, much as his counterparts in New York and Los Angeles have been doing for several years.

Pop-up restaurants, much like pop-up retail stores, take over unoccupied commercial spaces for mere days to offer diners a taste of a limited yet carefully crafted menu. Diners eat with strangers in a communal atmosphere in a nontraditional fine-dining setting.

Chefs say pop-up dining challenge their cooking skills as well as attempt to alter restaurant-goers?? attitudes of eating out. "There??s a certain empowerment about making a reservation, asking for things, making requests,???? said Gilson. "Going into a pop-up, we are removing a lot of those decisions.????

Gilson and Aaron Cohen run eatBoston, which stages pop-up dinners around the city. "There??s a MacGyver component,???? said Gilson. "Here??s a cafe with limited resources. See what you can do.????

The chef changes the menu for each night the pop-up is open, which adds an element of surprise to the evenings. Gilson would like to tackle a pop-up monthly around Boston. "I want to change the way people dine,???? he said.